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Nation-wide Progress: Environmental Justice Communities Leverage EPA Brownfield Grants
October 29, 2019
I. Introductions/Summary
I. Introductions/SummaryJasmin Muriel, EPA
II. Environmental Justice &B2H Insight and ResourcesSuzi Ruhl, EPA
III. NEPA ConsiderationsDr. P. Qasimah Boston
IV. National Examples Keith Ziobron, P.E., Cardno
V. A Local PerspectiveDr. Mildred McClain, Harambee House, Inc.
II. Environmental Justice &B2H Insight and ResourcesSuzi Ruhl, EPA
Roadmapfor Presentation: B2H and NEPASynergy
What are environmental justice factors and opportunities?
What is overarching architecture for synergy?
How does NEPA relate to B2H?
What are B2H success stories?
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Fundamental Relationship Between Environmental Justice & B2H & NEPA
GoalsTerms
ApproachesOutcomes
B2H
Brownfields
to Healthfields
Vulnerability
social
determinants
How we…
are born
grow
live
learn
work
play
distribution factors
Race
Ethnicity
Social Standing
Income
Education
What is Environmental Justice?
Proximity and Exposure Cumulative Impacts Physical Infrastructure
Susceptible Populations Unique Exposure Pathways Participating in Decision Making
PSYC
HO
LOG
ICA
L STRESSO
RS
What is Environmental Injustice?Disproportionate Impact Factors
Executive Order 12898: Federal
Actions to Address Environmental
Justice in Minority Populations and
Low-Income Population
• Each Federal agency shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations.
Federal Interagency
Working Group
on Environmental
Justice
• Created by EO 12898 (1994)
• Reconvened at the Cabinet Level (2010 and 2015)
• Charter & Memorandum of Understanding in 2011
• Framework for Collaboration, FY 2016-2018 (Gap Years)
• Environmental Protection Agency (Chair)
• White House Office: Council on Environmental Quality
• Departments: Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, Transportation, Veteran’s Affairs
• General Services Administration
• Small Business Administration
Advancing Consideration of
Environmental Justice Through NEPA
Flash Card Learning: Meaningful Engagement
➢ runs in two directions
▪ disseminating relevant information to community
▪ receiving information from community
➢start early and carry through each step
➢ identify cultural, institutional, geographic, economic, historical, linguistic, or other barriers
➢consider input from “each segment” of impacted populations
B2H:
Model Approach
Transformation of contaminated properties to strengthen community health, equity, sustainability and resiliency for impacted vulnerable and underserved populations living in areas with pollution, disease, poverty and crime
B 2 H
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1. Clean Water Action,
Southward of Newark
2. Lowcountry Alliance for
Model Communities, Charleston
4. Diesel Health Project, Kansas
City
5. Citizens for a Sustainable
Future, Tallahassee
6. East Yard Communities for
Environmental Justice, East
and Southeast Los Angeles,
Long Beach
7. Comite Civico del Valle,
Brawley
8. New Jersey Environmental
Justice Alliance, Newark
9. lronbound Community
Corporation, East of Newark
B2H National
Project
Community-Driven Outcomes
Behavioral wellness
Community Ambassador Job Creation
Evidenced-based Adaptive Approach
Replicable and Scalable Model
Design:
Partnership of community organizations, academic, private sector, clinical care, government
Special Assets:
$6.2 million Hurricane Sandy Social Service Block Grant
Powering Environmental Justice Partnerships
Slide 14
• Community Conservation Center
• Technology Lab
• Financial Empowerment Center
• Fitness Workshops
• Community Garden & Healthy Living
Café
• Job Training & Leadership
Development for Youth, Adults & Re-
entry Clients
• Public Safety & Enforcement Drop-in
Site
• Senior & Afterschool Programs
• Small Business Center & Incubator
• Health &Vision Clinic
• 3D Learning Lab
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Photo from Neighborhood Housing Services Center for Sustainable Communities
B2H Success: Agriculture and Health (Los Angeles, CA)
B2H and
NEPA
III. NEPA ConsiderationsDr. P. Qasimah Boston
REWIND: ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE AND NEPA OF 1969
Dr. P. Qasimah Boston
Tallahassee Food Network
Moving Forward Network
For
2019 Brownsfield Conference
Orlando, FL
19
Objectives
1. Frame environmental justice with the NEPA
2. Increase awareness of current activities to rollback NEPA
3. Encourage action to prevent the rollback of NEPA
20
21
Framing???
22
EnvironmentalJustice
NEPAOne of the first laws that establishes a framework for our
environment
EJ&
NEPA
NEPA
EJ
&
NEPA
23
Case Study: Savannah River Site
• 1950
• 6000 residents affected
• 15 months to leave
• Renters got no compensation
• Mixed feelings about leaving
24
Ellenton
Dunbarton
Snelling
Jackson
New Ellenton
Why must our town be destroyed?
25
26
27
Areas CKLP
Areas MHZN
Areas EFH
28
5 nuclear production reactors
a nuclear target & fuel fabrication facility
(assembles the targets & fuel for the reactors)
2 chemical separations areas processed
irradiated targets & fuel assemblies & the liquid high-level radioactive
waste tank farms
a waste verification facility, - vitrifies liquid high-level radioactive
waste
a salt stone facility -solidifies low-level radioactive sludge
some wastes are stored
waste treatment, storage & disposal facilities - various administrative, support, &
research facilities.
No National Environmental Policy Act Until 1969
•It happened fast
•No promotion of efforts to prevent/eliminate damage to the
environment
•No Council on Environmental Quality
•No requirement of federal agencies to assess
human/environmental effects of their proposed actions
before making decisions.29
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An Environmental Justice Issue
The Savannah River Site
31
A NEPA Framework: 1991 SRS Interviews
•85 South Carolina & Georgia residents
• Interviews were with; congressional, federal, and state officials;
local officials; environmental organizations; public interest
groups; residents of surrounding communities; residents
downstream of SRS; and private citizens
•Concerns: contamination of the Savannah River, air, groundwater
32
A NEPA Framework: Environmental Impact Statement
33
EJ issue:Construction of a nuclear waste
processing facility
9.15&16.1994Savannah, GAPublic hearing
NEPAEIS
77 comments were collected
49 YEARS OF NEPA
34
cornerstone piece of legislation - it establishes
policy, sets goals, and provides means for carrying
out the policy
protects health, air, water, soil
MORE IMPORTANT - NEPA promotes transparency and citizen participation in public decisions, empowerment of
community voices
Trump administration working to undermine NEPA with language in must-pass
transportation reauthorization bill
CURRENT ACTIVITIES TO ROLL BACK NEPA
NEPA ROLLBACK: ONE FEDERAL DECISION POLICY
for major infrastructure projects
1. The most damaging NEPA rollback
2. Arbitrary 2-year limit on review
3. Federal government can only have one decision -
demoting federal agencies with health or conservation
expertise.
Over the past years over 180 pieces of legislations have
been aimed to weaken or waive NEPA protections (Earth
Justice, 2019)
35
NEPA RollbackUS Forest Service• Eliminate public participation & reduce the role of
science in majority of land management decisions.
• Increase the speed and scale of resource extraction
including mining and logging
• The Forest Service has proposed to fast track
decisions under the new, “categorical exclusions.”
36
NEPA ROLLBACKTransportation Bill
• The $105 billion transportation bill’s 600-plus
pages are provisions that exempt many major
road projects from NEPA review
• A block of public input during the final stage
of the NEPA process
• Unprecedented rollback of NEPA safeguards
37
WAYS TO TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT PREVENTION OF NEPA ROLLBACK
With Tallahassee Food Network: Collards & Cornbread
We are educating our communities on NEPA and asking our
Network to speak with and ask our senators and representatives to
say NO to ROLLBACK of NEPA
With MFN:
We have gone to our congressional representatives in DC to
educate on NEPA and ask for them to support NO ROLLBACK
education of our communities on what NEPA is and its importance
38
IN CLOSING
• Environmental justice is about improving and maintaining a clean and healthful environment for us all.
• When framed with NEPA Environmental Justice has wings…..
• Communities of Color struggle to be part of the decision-making process.
• Our voices are important especially when the decisions and policies impact the health and wellness of our communities.
• KEEP NEPA as it is! DON’T DISMANTLE IT, ELEVATE IT! • …because participatory process -- the opportunity for promotion of democratic &
civic processes.
39
40
References
Department of Energy (1994). Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. Defense Waste Processing Facility.
Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=2AoxAQAAMAAJ&pg=SL120-PA10&lpg=SL120-
PA10&dq=NEPA+Qasimah+Boston&source=bl&ots=KzHLrjGk48&sig=ACfU3U0VKPmWoHujV3OvT5gcD70YBVEjiQ&hl=en&
sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK3-
vCjr7lAhWkdt8KHRAvCkkQ6AEwBnoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=NEPA%20Qasimah%20Boston&f=true
Laws. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ceq.doe.gov/laws-regulations/laws.html
Summary of the National Environmental Policy Act. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-national-
environmental-policy-act
The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended. (n.d.). White House [PDF file].
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/ceq/NEPA_full_text.pdf
What is the National Environmental Policy Act? (2017). Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/nepa/what-national-environmental-
policy-act
III. National ExamplesKeith Ziobron, P.E.
Albany, NY – Sheridan Hallow ANSWERS Plant 1994
Brownfield Grant Focus on Varying EJ Community Priorities
EJ Factors
> Lake County Oregon– Uranium Processing – The Death of the Lumber Industry– Blight & Developable Land
> Greenville, MS– Job Loss– Persistent Flooding– Blight
> Savannah, Georgia– Significant socio-economic disparities– Food Desert– Blight/Lead Exposure
Brownfield Grant Priorities
> Lake County Oregon– Quality Mixed Income Housing to Support
New Alternative Energy Boom– Blighted Property/Development Opportunities
Inventory & Development Demand Analysis
> Greenville, MS– Job Generation/Blight – Focus On Blighted Industrial Inventory -
FY2018– FY2020 Focus On “Gas Station Alley”
> Savannah, Georgia– Robust Community Engagement Program– Brownfield Advisory Board– Focus on Developable Sites that will Jobs,
Healthcare, & Healthy Foods
Lake County Oregon
> Area: 8,358 mi² (~7 times the State of Rhode Island)
> Founded: October 24, 1874
> Population: 7,863 (2017)
> County seat: Lakeview
> South Central Oregon Economic Development District (SCOEDD) Applied for & Received FY 2018 Brownfield Coalition Assessment Grant
SCOEDD Progress
Sites Assessed
> 4805 Repair
> Alger Theater
> Carlon Mill
> Lakeview Mill
> Lakeview Reclaimed lumber
> K&L Mortuary
> Lakeview Lockers
Planning Related Activities
> Development Demand Analysis (To Supplement Housing and Economic Development State Funded Grant Studies)
> Concept-level Development Plans & Proforma for Carlon and Lakeview Mills
> Development Opportunities Inventory
Development Opportunities Inventory
Phases
– Data Collection
– ESRI Geodatabase Design
– Inventory
– Map Viewer Development
– Reporting
Mobile Data Collection
ArcGIS Collector
– Mobile Data Collection App
– ArcGIS Online
– ArcGIS Portal
– Map Service
o Online/Offline Editing
o ESRI Basemaps
– Capture development opportunity details
– Inspector Information
– Photo Attachments
Greenville, MS | Key Projects 1 - Axminster
U.S. Axminster – former carpet manufacturer
• Performed a Phase I ESA
• Environmental concerns with historic manufacturing operations
• Performed an Ecological and Wetland Assessment
• Determined no active wetlands in former building footprint
• Performed a Phase II ESA
• Identified no contamination of concern
• Site currently being evaluated for redevelopment
Axminster
Greenville, MS | Key Project 2 - Matcor
Matcor (formerly Cleaver Brooks)
• Performed a Phase I ESA
• Environmental concerns with historic boiler manufacturing
• Performed an asbestos inspection –none identified
• Performed a Phase II ESA –identified minor petroleum contamination on eastern corner
• Property has since been purchased and currently a $20M project with 68 jobs to be created starting April 2019
Matcor
51
Matcor 2017
Key Projects - Matcor
Matcor (formerly Cleaver Brooks)
• Performed a Phase I ESA
• Environmental concerns with historic boiler manufacturing
• Performed an asbestos inspection –none identified
• Performed a Phase II ESA –identified minor petroleum contamination on eastern corner
• Property has since been purchased and currently a $20M project with 68 jobs to be created starting April 2019
Matcor
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Nufarm - 2019
The Win
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21HIRES
To Date
City of Savannah Brownfield Background
> No previous municipal experience in EPA Brownfield program or grant awards
> Applied for EPA’s Community-Wide Assessment Grant three times since 2015 prior to being awarded in 2018
> Built partnerships with local nonprofits, community organizations, neighborhood associations
The SAVANNAH, GA Team
Savannah, Georgia Target Area
Corridor Details
> Two-mile corridor with history of commercial and industrial use
> Montgomery Street was previously the route for US HWY 17 into South Carolina
> Western edge of the Historic District
> Significant socio-economic disparities
Long-term Intent
Develop a program over the next 5-10 years, strategically applying for Brownfield grants that will:
> Leverage Community Input & Brownfield Advisory Board
> Identify & assess contaminated properties
> Enhance community engagement
> Improve community health
> Clean up environmental contamination
> Reduce the number of blighted properties
> Leverage local economic redevelopment incentives
A Savannah Leveraged Vision
FY2022 Revolving Loan Funding Grant: ~$1 million
FY2021 Job Training Grant: $200,000
FY2021 Assessment Grant: $300,000
FY2021 Cleanup Grant: $500,000
FY2018 Assessment Grant: $300,000
One Brownfield Assessment Dollar Leverages $16.11*:
Therefore ~$2.3 million in Brownfield Grant Funds could yield >$37 Million in Private
Investment> *https://www.epa.gov/brownfields/brownfields-program-
accomplishments-and-benefits
IV. A Local PerspectiveDr. Mildred McClain, Harambee House
Thank You!
Questions?
Jasmin MurielEnvironmental Protection SpecialistOffice of Environmental JusticePhone: [email protected]